Camera Lenses: The In's and Out's

Over the years of being a professional photographer numerous friends, family members, and co-workers have approached me with essentially the same set of questions.

And really I could boil the questions down to just one question to sum everything up.

Why did my picture not turn out as I wanted it to?

Believe it or not I strongly believe that it comes down to the camera lens that a person chooses to take a picture with.

 

In fact I would go so far as to say that in today's world with the camera technology that we have, even an amateur can have a picture turn out like it was taken by a professional.

And so if you know just a few simple professional techniques you too can have your pictures turn out just the way you want them to. It's amazing what even a $300 camera can do these days.

My days of taking pictures started in the late 1990's. A friend of mine let me borrow his Canon equipment. Essentially I had thousands of dollars worth of equipment in the palm of my hand.

And my photography journey begun.

Amongst the collection of cool goodies I had numerous lenses. You name it and I had it.

There were zoom lenses and telephoto lenses and more. I had tripods and lens hoods. I was in camera heaven.

I soon became really good at capturing precious moments. I usually just gave the pictures away to people which floored them of course.

After some time people began asking me to photograph events like weddings and office parties.

I believe the right lens in the right moment made all the difference.

 

How Camera Lenses Work

You must be wondering how a lens works and which one to use. And with today's technology and the automation that often comes with cameras, you should be shooting quality pics in no time.

But if you can learn the manual side of things you will fare even better.

Standard Lens

The standard lens would be the 50mm. These are the ones that are fixed and more often than not come standard on SLR cameras as I am sure you have seen.

This type of lens is a must-have.

It is used for everyday shooting. It is equivalent to the human eye and creates a relative size of things in pictures. It often allows for very low levels of light as well.

Zoom Lens

This is a lens that creates options for the one taking the picture. You can shoot up close or far away.

These lenses come in various sizes but anywhere between 35mm to 200mm should suffice.

Unlike the standard lens, you wouldn't use these lenses in low light nor taking pictures of moving people or objects.

Wide Angle

The wide angle camera is my favorite. This is a lens used when you want more of the background captured in the picture.

These lenses have a shorter focal range and ideally you are looking for ones that are between 24mm to 35mm.

Some wide angle lenses product a 180 degree photo. Wow!

Telephoto

The telephoto lens has a focal range that goes beyond the standard 50mm. These are the cool lenses you see on the sidelines of sporting events.

The longer the lens the more magnification the photographer gets.

Unlike the zoom lens, these camera lenses are fixed. They are used when you can only get so close to your subject.

Stick to using a tripod (or monopod) when using this type of lens with your camera.

In terms of size I would say anywhere from 100-500mm should suffice.

 

Believe me when I say that the lens is what separates one picture from another. There is a lens for whatever level of photographer you are.

As you read above pick and choose what lens you feel fits what types of photos you will be taking (and keep researching lenses online at photography sites like this one).

The great thing about today's technology is that you can touch up what you take or delete the picture and go out and take another. Technology has really leveled the playing field so go out and get it done.

I wish you the very best in your photographic adventure.